Sacramento ranks high as a place to enjoy your ‘staycation’

Sacramento offers plenty of reasons to hang around when you have time off. Sasha VinokurPhoto courtesy of Reward Expert

Sacramento offers plenty of reasons to hang around when you have time off. Sasha VinokurPhoto courtesy of Reward Expert

Have some time off but prefer to hang close to home? Then Sacramento is your kind of town.

California’s capital landed on the top 10 of best cities for “staycations,” the cutesy designation for investing vacation time at home. This 2017 list has been compiled and published by the travel company Reward Expert.

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Minneapolis topped the list, with Sacramento placing eighth. Here’s what Reward Expert said about the City of Trees/Farm-to-Fork/Tomatoes:

“Sacramento is a great city for staycationers looking to save a buck. Despite its proximity to some of California’s top destination cities, Sacramento is much more affordable than places like San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. Additionally, the weather is wonderful for a good portion of the year. According to Kelly Norton’s pleasant days per year, Sacramento has 183 pleasant days per year. Check out the Sacramento French Film Festival, a cultural event that occurs each July. The festival showcases U.S. premieres of French films and shows classic French masterpieces.”

To reach its conclusions, RewardExpert compared 100 of the largest U.S. cities across three key dimensions: recreation, food and entertainment, and rest and relaxation. They used what they consider 29 relevant metrics, each given a value between 0 and 100, with 100 represents the most favorable conditions for vacationing and 0 the least.

The overall score and final rankings were calculated using the weighted average across all metrics.

Here’s are top 10 cities:

1. Minneapolis

Minneapolis landed on top of the list of great cities for “staycations.”

Sasha Vinokur Photo courtesy of Reward Expert

2. Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh

Sasha Vinokur Photo courtesy of Reward Expert

3. Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Sasha Vinokur Photo courtesy of Reward Expert

4. Orlando, Fla.

Orlando

Sasha Vinokur Photo courtesy of Reward Expert

5. Tampa, Fla.

Tampa

Sasha Vinkur Photo courtesy of Reward Expert

6. Cincinnati

Cincinnati

Sasha Vinokur Photo courtesy of Reward Expert

7. Cleveland

8. Sacramento

The moon rises over the Sacramento skyline on Sept. 9, 2014.

Randall Benton rbenton@sacbee.com

9. Irvine, Calif.

Irvine, Ca.

Sasha Vinokur Photo courtesy of Reward Expert

10. Atlanta, Ga.

One other California city landed in the top 20: No. 17 San Francisco. Here’s the entire top 100.